Archive for the 'How-to' Category

In the last few weeks, I’ve been getting a number of questions about how to make leather masks, what kind of materials to use, etc. I suppose I could make my own tutorial, but there are a number of them out there that are probably better than I could do. Instead, I’m going to use my fabulous skills at wasting time on the internet to put together a giant resource dump. If you know of other good resources for the beginning mask maker, or have suggestions about materials, please let me know in the comments!

In case it isn’t obvious, I didn’t make any of the linked tutorials, or sample masks (well, ok, I made one of them), and I don’t own any of them. I’m just linking them here as useful references for aspiring mask makers.

Leather:
I usually use 5-7 oz. vegetable tanned tooling leather. For some kinds of detail work, or for layering, I might use as light as 3 oz.
Thicker leather like 6-7 oz will be more durable and hold its shape better (this is especially important when you have thin pieces like horns– you don’t want them to go droopy!), and will give you more visible impressions from carving and tooling.
Thinner leather like 2 or 3 oz. will be more flexible, and you can get a lot of folding and detail out of shaping it. So, to some extent, it depends on what you’re trying to make. Here are some examples of what can be done with different thicknesses of leather, done by various artists.

Brick and mortar stores are especially good for beginners, because you can go in and get advice, and see and touch the leather before you buy it. Also, they often will let you buy in smaller amounts, which is good for experimenting. For more advanced leatherworkers, direct ordering from a tannery is a great option, because the quality is often higher, and you get wholesale prices.

Tools:

You certainly don’t need all of these things for your first project, but these are the things in my kit.

Heavy paper for pattern making

Tracing film, if you need to transfer a detailed design

Self-healing cutting mat

Utility knife or heavy duty X-acto knife, for cutting out your mask

A bit of sandpaper for smoothing down edges

Stylus, for drawing details on the leather before cutting or tooling

Swivel knife, for cutting designs into the leather

Leather punch, for making holes for the ties. I actually like to use the hammer punches instead of a rotary one, so don’t have to make the hole near the edge of the leather.

Skiver, for cleaning up edges, or for thinning the leather to make it fold easier in a particular place

Mallet

Bone creaser, for smoothing and defining folds (doesn’t actually have to be bone)

Tooling stamps. The ones I end up using a lot are the beveler, backgrounder, pear shader, and mule’s foot, but there are only about a billion of them out there

Rivets/rivet setter, if you need to attach multiple pieces of leather, and don’t want to sew or glue them

Paint brushes

Artist’s sponges

Wool dauber dye applicators (you can get these wherever you buy your dye)

Tooling Tutorials:

Most of these are meant for traditional, Western-y leather products, but the techniques are applicable to mask-making as well. Just try to forgive the folksy soundtracks 😉